Macy's to close 11 stores, reports sales decline for December

Macy's Inc. said it will close 11 underperforming Macy's stores and that sales for the five weeks ended Jan. 3 totaled $4.397 billion, a decrease of 4.7%.

"These closings are part of our normal-course process to prune underperforming locations each year in order to maintain a healthy portfolio of stores," said Terry J. Lundgren, chairman, president and CEO of Macy's Inc., in a statement. "While new store growth has slowed in the current economy, our long-term strategy is to continue to selectively add new stores while closing those that are underperforming."  

Final clearance sales at most the stores will begin within the next week.

On a same-store basis, Macy's Inc. sales were down 4% in December. Same-store sales for the combined November-December period were down 7.5%.

Online sales (macys.com and Bloomingdales.com combined) presented a different story and were up by 39.1% in December, by 26% in the November-December period and by 30.1% for the year to date.

Of the retailer's top 15 best-performing geographic markets in December, 13 were My Macy's pilot districts. My Macy's is a program in which Macy's is trying to tailor store assortments, service levels and the shopping environment to local customer needs and preferences.